This summer, I have taken on a unique role as an EDF Climate Corps fellow at HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading hospital operators. While most of the other 50 EDF Climate Corps fellows will spend the next couple months identifying energy efficiency opportunities in office buildings and data centers, I am the only one that will be working on healthcare facilities. Upon starting my fellowship, I quickly realized that everything is more complicated in healthcare facilities.

I spent the first week of my fellowship exploring and learning about my new industry. Read more…

Despite this, the holiday gets almost no attention in the US (I had forgotten it myself until a chance conversation today). In a quick search, I wasn’t able to find one mention of it in any US news outlet, nor did I find mention of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message about the holiday.

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This is what happens when you spend all your time learning about and examining energy efficient lighting solutions. Instead of enjoying the splendor of the longest cave system in the world, you focus your attention on the fact that the National Park system is running hundreds of highly efficient LED lights and must have a great lighting control system.

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I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far living in Nashville this summer during my EDF Climate Corps fellowship with HCA Healthcare. Besides the terrible heat and humidity (it’s been in the mid-90’s this past week), Nashville has some excellent organic farmer’s markets, a handful of vegetarian restaurants, a good community at Green Drinks, and of course lots of live music (and not just the country kind).

Being in Nashville has me thinking about where I want to live after graduating from Erb. I’m a New York boy and the NY/NJ area still feels like home to me. Emily and I lived in Oakland, CA for two years and fell in love with the climate and amazing food culture. We also think Portland, OR would be a perfect fit for us, with its bike lanes and great beer. These are cities where I could likely find a job in sustainability, and places I know I’d be very comfortable.

But I also think a lot about where I could make the most difference. In Portland, I’d probably have a hard time distinguishing myself from the rest of that city’s residents who live and breath sustainability. But in cities outside the progressive West Coast or Northeast, there is still lots of opportunity to be part of a burgeoning community of people and companies still trying to figure out how they deal with that whole “sustainability thing.” Despite some green things happening in Nashville, I’m also living in a state with cheap energy made from 63% coal. I came across a good article that stresses the need to get the South on board to address global warming and save energy (thanks Rob).

I still have a couple years to figure all of this out, but its something I’ve been thinking about as I struggle to decide whether being in a place that embraces sustainability is better than being somewhere that I can be most effective.